The first word is a cry of lament. The Hebrew word, ʾêkāh, translated as Ah, Alas! or How,
is a powerful expression of lament. It is an expression of shock that frequently commences funeral laments and mournful poems (see also Lamentations 2:1; Lamentations 4:1; 2 Samuel 1:19; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 48:17). In Lamentations 1:1–5:22 it is an expression of sadness, and the focus is not so much on the death, but the devastating loss that was suffered.1 This word forms the initial expression in Lamentations 1:1–22,Lamentations 2:1–22, and Lamentations 4:1–22. It is also the Hebrew name of the book, Lamentations.2
1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.